When I first heard the word permaculture & heard that there were 12 principles it conjured up all sorts of complicated concepts that my new gardening brain just couldn’t fathom. 

I was flat out working out how to keep a few pots of herb alive let alone applying 12 principles to my gardening. I mean, come on!! Who has time for that?

What I came to understand is that we all do. Permaculture is something we can all use to help guide our food growing journey and so much more. 

I want to demystify permaculture for the newbie gardener a little but. Take out some of the unfamiliar language that can some times cause us to think what the fuck does that even mean. 

Let's start from the beginning.. Back in the 70’s when I was born 2 coworkers and friends Bill Mollinson and David Holgren from Tasmania Australia developed a sustainable agriculture system. It was a system that took it’s concepts and methods from the natural environment and the word Permaculture is a combination of the words Permanent Agriculture. 

The system is designed to have closed energy cycles. What that means in simple terms is that the gardens or farms don't need a bunch of external energies like chemical fertilizers, irrigation and human work like plowing fields for it to produce a great harvest. 

The waste from one would feed the other like cutting and dropping the unused portions of the plants so that it becomes mulch that helps retain moisture and breaks down adding nutrients back into the earth. Just like trees do with leaves and bark. 

It means growing different types of plants together or in a sequence so they help each other out with nutrient needs and help to keep moisture held in the soil. 

It also means carefully observing nature so that our gardens and farms mimic the local ecology. Designing also takes into account the ease of use. No point having something that is great in theory but is too hard to implement and use. 

Full show notes at www.sohfarmlet.com.au/podcast